


More Things in Heaven and Earth

by Not_So_Secretly_a_Spaceship



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Blood and Gore, Cannibalism, Canon-Typical Violence, Climbing Class, M/M, Mental Health Issues, More things in heaven and earth, Possession, Slow Burn, Wendigo!Josh, Wendigos are smarter than everyone thinks, more tags to come
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-20
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-23 13:58:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8330455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Not_So_Secretly_a_Spaceship/pseuds/Not_So_Secretly_a_Spaceship
Summary: It takes 3 days to organise the first rescue crew.  No one returns.  The second rescue crew is sent up, this time under strict instructions not to go into the mines.  Some of them return.  The third rescue crew includes Chris, and they listen to Chris when he says 'we have to be off the mountain before dark -', but they don't quite believe his continuation: 'and they live in the mines'.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So what am I doing during my study free evenings? I'm obsessing over Until Dawn and writing Climbing Class.  
> I stumbled across danji-doodle's Exor!Josh thing and, knowing absolutely nothing about the fandom, began reading. Big. Mistake. I'm now totally hooked, a lot obsessed, and this fic has been devouring me from the inside out. 
> 
> For those of you who are new to my writing, I write in drabbles. These fit in well with my insane and fantastic and stupidly busy life (vet student, two cats, a dog, two horses) because it means I get to post updates more frequently. They're usually short, sweet, and to the point. 
> 
> I'm also experimenting a bit with the narrative style here. I've never written wendigo perspective before. It's kinda fun.

A scent rouses him from slumber. Fresh. Flesh. _Delicious_. He salivates. His stomach cramps. _Sweet tendersucculent warmgooey slips down the throat fills the belly_. He unfurls. Limbs too short. Claws just right. Tongue tasting the air. _So sweet_.

He can hear them, the eager chittering, the hungry maws of teeth. He joins them. Observes the walking meat as it enters their den. Oh but there are _many_ walking meat, tantalising on his tongue. His fingers twitch. Claws dig into rock where they want to bite into flesh. But he holds back. Waits for them to come in further. Into the dark damp.

One of their number is impatient. He gnashes his teeth at it, and it quietens. Slinks back. There is a subtle shift. This is his first fresh walking meat. He had eaten old dead walking meat, scorched by fire to make it palatable to that-which-was-him, then devoured by that-which-is-him untainted by flame. It felt sour in his belly. It had been dead too long.

This would not. These would sooth his hunger in a way elk never would. Fresh, full of life and blood and bone and gut and _heart_. He bares his teeth. Climbs down the side of the cave. The others follow.

Tonight they will feast. The rest, they will bury beneath the earth to keep for a night. Some, they may keep for two. Release them one by one into the _deepdarkdamp_ and hunt them.

Fear makes walking meat taste so much sweeter.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time to study I think...

It took 3 days to organise the first rescue crew. None of them return from the mountain. It is a week before the second rescue crew are sent up – to look for signs of the first rescue crew, as well as continue their original task: find Joshua Washington, or his remains.

They are better prepared this time. More of them, some ex-army and armed to the teeth. They are under strict instructions to _not go into the mines_.

They leave for the mountain at dawn.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is not enough Climbing Class to satisfy my hunger.
> 
> Also caution: description of cannibalism and body parts.

There are two left of the first batch when the shriek rings out and the cackling begins. Some of their number gnaw on the bones of those walking meats already dead, sharp teeth stripping every last bit of muscle and sinew. He gets the choicer pieces. The abdominal viscera. The _heart_. Eyeballs that pop between his teeth to release their juices. Sometimes he will take a thigh. Crack the femur open and suck out the marrow.

Others get the scraps, the less meaty bits. The more fatty walking meats. He likes them lean. The thick layers of fat stick to his teeth and make him uncomfortable. Some of the lean ones are disappointing – their livers too fatty, kidneys and intestines shrouded in yellow globules. Those, he lets the others eat. He takes the parts he wants. Leaves the rest.

It all gets eaten, in the end.

But now they sing of new walking meat, _exciting_ walking meat. _Weapons_ , they scream. _Challenge_ , another howls. _Hunt_ , he replies.

They are laughably easy, for all their lights and bullets and fires. Three escape.

They bury the rest for later.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is all I've written for now, and we're now into exams, which means I'm going to disappear under piles of study notes for about three weeks. 
> 
> Unless inspiration strikes and I just have to write. Which sometimes happens. ...okay it usually always happens...

Three men return from the second rescue mission and are taken away in ambulances. Two of them stare into the distance, eyes unseeing as they recount the screams and the cracking of bones and howls and silver glowing disks in the night. The third is immediately sedated and whisked off, his left tibia bared to the elements from knee to ankle.

It takes a month to organise the third rescue crew. The Washingtons call in extensive favours and expensive men.

The third rescue crew includes Chris, who faces down the mountain with jelly legs and liquified intestines but a grim determination to make up for his actions, to _know_ what happened. They listen to him when he says 'we have to be off the mountain before dark'. Their faces twist with sympathy and pity when he continues: 'and they live in the mines'.

But still, they listen to him, and their first day is spent carefully inspecting the area around the cable car station. They are off the mountain by the time the skies bleed red and the sun disappears.

Chris spends that first night crying in his tent, holding his knees as close to his chest as he can and praying they're safe enough. There are no inhuman shrieks in the night. The sun rises. No one dies.

They examine the mountainside, the burnt husk of the cabin, the Sanitorium, and the fine detail of bark on trees for a week. The nights are spent twitching at every sound. Not that his nights before this were restful – he's not slept peacefully since it all happened. Nightmares follow his waking steps as well as his sleeping ones. At least out here he's doing something to face them.

Chris knows they'll have to search the mines soon. He knows that's where everything will be. Where Josh – or his remains – will be found. It's a mixed feeling. He wants to know, to understand, but the thought of returning to the deep dark damp has him dry retching in fear.

It's another three days before the rescue team leader, a lovely woman named Renee, announces their search will take them into the mines the next dawn.

Chris doesn't sleep a wink.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little dribble crammed in between anatomy study. So. Much. Study.

The walking meats have been sniffing around. Shuffling about during the light times and fleeing before dark. He howls in frustration. They have done this for many days and nights, leaving scent trails that torment him. There is fear there, yes, an overlying musk that elevates the heart rate and has his toes curling in delight.

Beneath that there is a scent that trickle down neuronal connections from his olfactory bulb to taunt his hippocampus. It is an unfamiliar _feeling_ to that-which-is-him. That-which-was-him knows it. Identifies it. _Warmhappycomfortmine_. He snorts, expels the scent that grabs at his insides.

He hunts elk in the dead of night and spends the light hours dreaming of the walking meats.

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anatomy exam will be done today. Thank goodness.

Chris is amazingly prepared. The rescue team look at him strangely as he straps hair spray, lighters and flares to himself. He'd made duct tape holders all over his bag shoulder- and hip-straps for everything. He even has two flare guns stuck in his back pockets. They still don't quite believe him. He thinks if he had another couple of days, some of them might at least agree to take proper precautions. A shotgun only does so much against the beasts of this mountain.

Instead, most of the people he stands with will die. Maybe some will die a quick death – the ones that are dangerous. Others will be taken away to be eaten at a later date.

He wants to vomit.

He hopes he has enough to keep him safe. At least until he finds Josh.

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No I'm not procrastinating study...

There's a chitter. He slides out of his nest. Flows down the wall to the ground.

There's another chitter. Excited. Closer to the surface. He slips out of his cave and makes his way through caverns and tunnels, up shafts and crevasses, working his way towards the light that scorches his eyes.

He stops when he scents them. They are _outside_ where the snow is crisp and the sun illuminates the world with fire. That-which-was-him remembers the glare of light on colourless drifts. The way flakes drift on a calm day and whip in a storm, slamming into windows and coating their panes in white.

He shakes his brain free.

Some of these are armed. Here, in the mines, they must be more cautious. It is easier to be hit in such close quarters. Being shot is not pleasant. He growls and everyone retreats.

They will pick them off carefully.

 


End file.
